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William Beach Lawrence 



A DISCOURSE 



Bt CHARLES HENRY HART 



A DISCOURSE 



COMMEMCJKATIVE OF THE 



LIFE AND SERVICES 



OF THE LATE 



William Beach Lawrence 



PKONOllNCED BEFORE THE 



Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Pliiladelpliia 
On Thursday Evening May 5 1881 

By CHAELES HENEY HAET 

HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE SOCIETY 

AND 

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

ItUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW EN .LAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIfaTV 

NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND ISIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY ESSEX 

INSTITUTE SALEM MASSACHUSETTS 

AND 

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

[Reprinted from The PiiNN Monthly for June iSSi] 



PHILAI^ELPHIA 
1881 







Press of Edward Stkkn & Co., 

125 and 127 N. Seventh Street, 

Philadelphia. 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. 

THE duty that I perform to-niiijht is truly a sad pleasure. It is, 
indeed, a great privilege to be allowed to lay a tribute upon 
the grave of a departed friend, but, at the same time, it is a priv- 
ilege that we would always be happier were we not called upon 
to embrace. William Beach Lawrence, the honorary Vice-Presi- 
dent of this Society for the State of Rhode Island, died in New 
York, at the Albemarle Hotel, on Saturday, March 26, 1881, in 
the eighty-first year of his age. My acquaintance with Mr. Law- 
rence began in the summer of 1S6S, and, for the remaining thirteen 
years of his life, our relations were not onl)' friendly, but intimate. 
This may seem strange, considering the disparity of our years, — 
he being nearly half a century my senior, — but the great theme 
that for so long occupied his mind and pen, — the Law of Nations,— 
was one that had early attracted my attention, and thus our simi- 
lar tastes bridged over the gulf of years. Living far apart, in dif- 
erent States, our intercourse, except by letter, was necessarily 
limited ; but I recall with great pleasure the occasions when I en- 
joyed the hospitality of his beautiful home at Ochre Point, and it 
is with equal satisfaction that I look back to when he was my guest 
here. Notwithstanding his engrossing labor upon his last great 
work, he was a no mean correspondent, and I find in my portfolio 
nearly fifty letters, closely written in his minute and characteristic 
hand. I need not say that I have felt flattered by his \'alued friend- 
ship ; but in drawing up this memoir I have endeavored neither to 
paint the lily nor to gild refined gold, but merely to give a correct 
delineation of his life and labors. 



William Beach Lawrence was born in the city of New 
York, on the twenty-third of October, iSoo. The Lawrence 
lineage is one of the proudest in the land. They claim 
descent from Sir Robert Laurens of Ashton Hall, Lancaster, Eng- 
land, who accompanied Richard Caur de Lion in his famous expe- 
dition to "Palestine, and who signalized himself in the memorable 
siegeof St. Jean d'Acre in II91, by being the first to plant the ban- 
ner of the cross on the battlements of that.town, for which service 
he received, on the field from King Richard, the honors of knight- 
hood. After this, the family became eminent in England, and a 
writer sa\-s : — " The Lawrences were allied to all that was great 
and illustrious; cousins to the ambitious Dudley, Duke of North- 
umberland ; to the Earl of Warwick ; to Lord Guilford Dudley, 
who expiated on the scaffold the short-lived royalty of Lady Jane 
Grey; to the brilliant Leicester, who set two queens at variance, 
and to Sir Philip Sidney, who refused a throne." Whether this 
descent is verified, has been disputed ; but certain it is that the three 
brothers, John, William and Thomas, who emigrated from Great 
St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, to this country, in the first half of the 
seventeenth century, bore the same coat-of-arms as those granted 
to Sir Robert, of Ashton Hall. John and William Laurence came 
over with John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Connecticut, in the ship 
"Planter," which landed at Plymouth in 1635, while Thomas, the 
youngest brother, from whom the subject of our notice was 
descended, is supposed, from his name not appearing in the list of 
passengers of the " Planter," to have come out subsequently and 
joined his brothers. It is also claimed that these three brothers 
were own cousins to the famous Henry Lawrence, Lord President 
of the Protector's Council, who was associated with Lords Say and 
Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Arthur Hasselrig, Sir Richard Saltonstall, 
George Fenwick and Henry Darle)', in obtaining the large grant 
of land on the Connecticut River, and who sent John Winthrop, 
Jr., out to be Governor over the same, intending to follow him to 
this country, but, the iirohibition to Cromwell and others from 
emigrating to America, defeated their intention. This relationship, 
although lacking documentary proof, is very probable, and would 
account for the emigration of John and William, by the same ves- 
sel as Governor Winthrop, at the early ages of seventeen and 
twelve respectively. From Massachusetts the brothers passed to 



5 

New York, and, in 1645, John and William appear among the pat- 
entees of Flushing, L. I. Thomas, the youngest brother, lived 
awhile at Flushing, but, in 1656, removed to Newtown, L. I., and 
became one of the patentees of that place. He subsequent))' pur- 
chased from the Dutch settlers a number of cultivated farms, ex- 
tending along the East River, from Hell Gate Cove to Bowery 15ay. 
He was quite active in the affairs of the Colony, and accepted tlie 
command of the troops raised in Queens County, to defend Albany 
against the French. His commission by Governor Leisler, with 
the rank of major, bears date December 30, 16S9. He died at 
Newtown in July, 1703, leaving a widow and seven children to 
survive him. 

John Lawrence, the third son of Major Thomas Lawrence, mar- 
ried Deborah, daughter of Richard Woodhull, one of the patentees 
of Brookhaven. He was captain of a troop of horse, and also high 
sheriff of the county, and died December 17, 1729, leaving a 
widow and three sons. John Lawrence, second son of Captain 
John Lawrence, was born at Newtown, September 9, 1695, and 
married, December 8, 1720, Patience, daughter of Joseph Sackett. 
He was a wealthy farmer, and died May 7, 1765. His wife and 
ten children survived him. William Lawrence, the fifth child of 
Farmer John Lawrence, was born July 27, 1729, and married. May 
14, 1752, Anna, daughter of Isaac and Diana Brinckerhoff, after 
whose death he married, April 14, 1 771, Mary, daughter of Charles 
Palmer. By these two marriages he had twelve children, seven of 
whom were living when he died, January 13, 1794. His son Isaac, 
born Februarys, 1768, was the father of William Beach Lawrence. 
He married Cornelia, daughter of the Reverend Abraham Beach, 
D. D., one of the ministers of Old Trinity, a woman of remarkable 
character and an exemplary wife and mother. Mr. Isaac Lawrence 
was a prominent and wealthy merchant of New York, and, from 
1S16, President of the branch Bank of the Lhiited States in that 
city, during its life of a score of years. He died Jul)- 12, 1841, leav- 
ing a large fortune to his seven children, of whom the subject oi 
this notice was the only son. His eldest daughter married the dis- 
tinguished James A. Hillhouse, of New Haven, wliile the youngest 
became the wife of the Right Reverend Bishop Kip, of California. 
The early years of William Beach Lawrence were passed at the, 
seat of his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Beach, on the Raritan 



in New Jersey, and at twelve years of aj^ehe was sent to Queen's, 
now Rutgers, College, which must have had a very modest cur- 
riculum to admit so mere a child. He remained at this school for 
two years, when he was prepared to enter Columbia College, New 
York, where he was graduated with the highest honors in tlie class 
of 1818, having among his class-mates the late Professor Henry J. 
Anderson and Mr. James Lenox. On leaving college, he became 
a student in the office of William Slosson, then the most eminent 
commercial lawyer in New York, and subsequently attended the 
famous law-school of Judges Reeves and Gould, at Litchfield, Con- 
necticut. His health becoming impaired by close and continuous 
application to study, he was obliged to make a voyage to the 
South, passing the winter in South Carolina and Georgia, where he 
was hospitably received by the historical families of Rutledge, 
Middleton, Huger, Lowndes and others, deriving much instruction 
from his intercourse v.ith these cultivated people, many of whom 
had receiv'ed their education at Oxford and Cambridge. Having 
married Hetty, daughter of Archibald Gracie, Esq., Mr. Lawrence, 
in 1821, visited Kurope, spending two years in England, France 
and Italy, availing himself of a winter in Paris to attend a course 
of lectures on political economy b}- Joan Paptiste Say, as also to 
frequent the Sorbonne and the School of Law. In going abroad, 
Mr. Lawrence enjoyed every advantage an American could well 
possess to facilitate his objects of intellectual and social improve- 
ment. The position occupied by his father as President of the 
branch Bank, as also his having been a Presidential Elector at the 
late election which had i^laced James Monroe at the head of the 
nation, enabled him to obtain for his son pri\'ate letters of intro- 
duction from the President, as also from his predecessors, Mr. 
Madison and Mr. Jefferson, to the different diplomatic representa- 
tives abroad and to many foreigners of consideration. At this 
time Richard Rush was our Minister at the Court of St. James and 
Albert Gallatin at the Court of France, and Mr. Lawrence's intro- 
duction to this last-named diplomat exercised a marked influerce 
upon his subsequent career and, indeed, upon all the rest of his 
life. Voyages to Europe, now so common, were in those days 
very rare, and, during the winter which Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence 
passed in Rome, there were but four Americans in the cit\-, and 
Mrs. Lawrence was the onl)' American lad_\-. It was at tliis time 



that the friendship between Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Bancroft be- 
gan, the latter, then a student at Gottingen, having come to pass 
Holy Week in Rome. 

On Mr. Lawrence's return from abroad in 1823, he was admit- 
ted to practice as a counsellor of the Supreme Court of New York. 
Chancellor Kent was at this time delivering a course of lectures, 
which formed the basis of his future Coinincntaires, and Mr. Law- 
rence, always anxious to learn, attended the entire course and 
took complete notes, which he carefully preserved, and which I 
have had the pleasure of seeing in his library at Newport. His 
attention was particularly directed to public law and the law of 
nations, — now comprehensively called international law, — to which 
he was particularly prompted by his intercourse with the subse- 
quent great publicist, Henry Wheaton, with whom Mr. Lawrence 
on liis return from Europe formed those intimate relations, which 
resulted in a life-long friendship. That his observations abroad had 
not been confined wholly to the science he specially pursued, is 
shown by the fact that, on the loth of May, 1825, he delivered, by 
request, an address at the opening of the eleventh exhibition of the 
American Academy of Fine Arts, on the Schools of Art, Ancient and 
Modern, which went through two editions, and received high com- 
mendation from the Nortli American Rcvinv (XXL, 459,) and other 
periodicals of the day. Mr. Lawrence po.ssessed particular advan- 
tages for treating this subject. He had visited the famous galleries of 
France and Italy, and had been a pupil of the distinguished 
arcliKologist Vasi, under whose direction he examined the remains 
of Roman art ; while Canova, himself, the most illustrious of mod- 
ern sculptors, had explained to him his own great works. His 
career as a writer was now fully entered upon, and, from 1 824 to 1826, 
he contributed several articles to the Atlantic Magazine, which later 
became the more widely known Nezu York Reviciv. At this time, 
his studies were principally directed towards questions of political 
economy, and his first articles have for their titles. Restrictions on 
the Banking System, and Financial Policy of the United States. 
Here he advocated the doctrines of free trade, with all its conse- 
quences, and of a paper money exchangeable at will into gold or 
silver, — principles to which he always remained faithful. 

In the spring of 1826, President John Quincy Adams appointed 
the Hon. Albert Gallatin, on a special mission, to succeed Mr. King 



8 

as Minister to England, and, in recognition of the historical and 
lefjal learning by which Mr. Lawrence had fitted hmself for the 
profession <>f diplomacy, Mr. Gallatin, who had known him in 
Paris, asked that he should be named as Secretary of Legation. 
This was a pjriod when important questions were at issue and 
negotiations pending, between the two Governments. The com- 
mercial intercourse between the United States and the British 
American provinces, including the West India trade, was then sus- 
pended. The general commercial treaty was to be revised, 
and the boundaries between the United States and the British pos- 
sessions on our extreme North-eastern and North-western frontiers, 
in Maine and Oregon, had to be settled. The disputed points 
which had been pretermitted in the Treaty of Ghent, including the 
assumed right of impressment of seamen, had yet to be adjusted. 
The brilliant Canning was at this time the head of the British Gov- 
ernment, and at the height of his career, so soon to come to a sud- 
den end. This is, of cour.se, not the place or the occasion to go 
into a review of the relations of the two countries; but the epoch 
was a critical one and called forth the exercise of the highest diplo- 
matic functions. In August, 1827, Mr. Canning died, and Lord 
Goodrich succeeded him as Premier. In October, Mr. Gallatin 
resigned and returned to this country, leaving Mr. Lawrence in 
charge of the mission, having previously, in his final dis])atch, as- 
sured Mr. Clay of the entire competency of the Secretary to con- 
duct alone its affairs. The President at once named Mr. Lawrence 
Charge d'AOaires, in which capacity, being vested with plenipo- 
tentiary powers, he exchanged the several treaties concluded by 
Mr. Gallatin, and to him also was confided, on behalf of the United 
States, the selection of the arbiter to determine the vexed boundary 
questions. While thus acting, Mr. Lawrence conducted several 
delicate matters to a successful conclusion and carried on a pro- 
tracted correspondence, first with Lord Dudlej', and later with Lord 
Aberdeen of the Wellington Ministry, in such a skilful and able man- 
ner as to call forth the approval of the President, ami to receive the 
warm commendation of Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. The 
character of Mr. Lawrence's dispatches, which are to be found in- 
serted at length in the State papers of the United States and 
Great Britian, may be inferred from the fact that, more than thirty 
years afterwards, portions of them were transferred without altera- 



tion to LaziTcnci's Whcatoii (2d Annotated Ed., 1863, p. 37,) and 
to liis French Commentaire {NoX. i., p. 170). He has in those 
works, besides other matters, drawn largely from his dispatches in 
regard to the relations of the Western powers and of Russia, to the 
affairs of Turkey, and the establishment of the Kingdon of Greece, 
which took place during his time [Conimcntairc, Vol. T., p. 412). 
During Mr. Lawrence's residence in London, he was a member of the 
Political Economy Club, to which McCulloch, Sir John Bowring,an(I 
the liberal-minded banker and historian of Greece, George Grote, be- 
longed. With Jeremy Bentham and Joseph Hume he was on 
terms of familiar intercourse. Questions of currency and finance 
were then uppermost in the Parliamentary debates, and Mr. 
Lawrence took an active interest in the friendly discussion of these 
subjects with the distinguished men just mentioned. He, more- 
over, during this period, carefully followed the proceedings of the 
British courts of law. Charles Abbot, Lord Tenterden, was then 
Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and the two illustrious brothers 
Scott, Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, presided respectively over the 
Courts of Chancery and of Civil Law. He had likewise the good 
fortune to be present and hear Brougham deliver his memorable 
speech calling for legal reform. It is needless to say that Mr. 
Lawrence was more than a casual observer of the events passing 
before him. He was an intelligent student and critic as well, and 
garnered from the ripe field around him rich stores, to be used 
at a subsequent season. 

Relieved from his duties at London, by the change of Adminis- 
tration consequent upon the election of Mr. Jackson, which also 
deprived him of the Mission to Berlin, which Mr. Adams and Mr, 
Clay assured him would be at his disposal, Mr. Lawrence passed 
several months in Paris, occupying his leisure, while there, by 
translating into English the History of Louisiana and its Cession 
by France to the United States, by Barbe M.irbois, who had been 
the Minister from France to conclude the negotiations at the 
close of our Revolutionary War. This translation was published 
at Philadelphia in 1830, without the translator's name. During 
this period, also, he wrote a review of Fenimore Cooper's Notions 
of the Americans, which appeared in the Westminster Review for 
June, 1829. On his return home, he resumed the practice of law, 
becoming associated in business with Mr. Hamilton Fish, and in 



lO 

the summer of 1 830 made a tour in the Western countrj', visiting 
Mr. Clay at his Kentucky liome. Soon after, a sul ject especially 
cognate to his diijloniatic studies engaged his attention. Tiiis 
was the prosecution of certain claims in which his family were 
largely interested, under the treaties of indemnity concluded, March 
28th, 1830, by Mr. Wheaton, with Denmark, and, July 4th, 1831, 
by Mr. Rives, with France. These claims for spoliation, princi- 
pally under the imperial decrees of Napoleon, in violation of the 
law of nations, led to a minute investigation of the rights of 
belligerents and of neutrals, and his arguments, printed for tlie 
Commission, supplied valuable material for his annotations on the 
Elements of International Law. These spoliation claims must not 
be confounded with those which have so long figured in ourCongrcs- 
sional annals. At this time he delivered a course of lectures on 
Political Economy to the Senior Class of Columbia College, which, 
after having been repeated before the Mercantile Library Associa- 
tion, were published in 1832. These lectures were intended to 
demonstrate the Ricardian theory and to sustain those doctrines of 
free trade of which he was ever a consistent advocate. He also 
pronounced the anniversary discourse, in 1832, before the New York 
Historical Society, which was published under the e.xpressive title 
of The Origin and Nature of the Representative and Federative 
Institutions of the United States ; the object of which was the de- 
fence of our system of government as it e.\isted before the late 
civil war : — the complete autonomy of the States for the regula- 
tion of their internal aflairs, and the national Government for the 
management of foreign affairs. Several articles from his pen 
appeared in the various prominent periodicals, many of which were 
subsequently reprinted. To the volumes of the American Annual 
Registir,irom 1S29 to 1834, he contributed important papers on 
the different countries of Kurope. For the North American Re- 
view (1 83 I), he wrote an article on the Bank of the United States, 
sustaining its Constitutionality and necessity as the financial agent 
ofthe Government,and,forthe American Quarterly Revictu (18^4), 
An hujuirv into the Causes of the Public Distress, due to the 
failure to recharter the bank by the Government. For the Netv 
York Revieiv (1841), he prepared a History of the Negotiations in 
Reference to the Eastern and North-eastern Boundaries of the United 
States, a subject with which he was perfectly familiar from his 



ri 

diplomatic experience in London. In 1843, tlie Democratic Rcvtciv 
published his memoir of his old chief, Albert Gallatin, and the 
same year he delivered, by request, before the yount^ men of New 
Brunswick, a discourse on the Colonization and History of Nciv 
Jersey. At Mr. Wheaton's solicitation, he prepared for the North 
American Rcvieiv (1845,) a notice of the History of the Lazu of 
Nations, while to an earlier volume (1843,) he contributed one on 
Folsom's Translations of Cortezs Lispatchcs. To this era belongs 
one of his few great forensic efforts, made before the Court for the 
Correction of Errors of the State of New York, in the case of the 
German Reformed Church, (Miller vs. Gable 4, Denio, 570,) when 
hisargument, (1845, Svo, pp. 80,) exhaustively examining the doc- 
trine of charitable uses in its relation to religious societies, was suc- 
cessful in reversing, by a vote of fourteen to three, the decision ofthe 
Chancellor, which had givento a small minority ofa congregation the 
church property, on the ground ofa deviation of the majority from 
the doctrines ofthe founders. Forfear of misapprehension, it may 
be as well to state, in this CDnnection, that, while the law of New 
York on this important question is as here decided by the Court of 
Appeals, the law of Pennsylvania, following the English doctrine on 
the same subject, is as decreed by the Chancellor, whose decision 
the Court of Appeals reversed. 

Mr. Lawrence ever took an active interest in the public im- 
provements of his native city. He had a prominent part in the 
projection of the Erie Railroad, and was one of its first directors. 
To his efforts, with other far-sighted New Yorkers, is due the con- 
struction of High Bridge and the consequent preservation of the 
navigability of the Harlem River. In 1850, Mr. Lawrence re- 
moved from New York to his estate known as Ochre Point, on the 
shore of the Atlantic Ocean, near Newport, R. I., where he already 
had had for several )'ears his summer residence, and which was now 
destined to become his home for the remainder of his days. As 
an evidence of his far-sightedness, I may state that for this site, the 
most beautiful on the island, he paid the sum of gi2,ooo, which, a 
third of a century later, was appraised for purposes of taxation 
at three-quarters of a million of dollars. Soon after his settle- 
ment in Rhode Island, Mr. Lawrence was elected, on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and subsequently 
became, under a provision ofthe State Constitution, Governor. In 



12 

the exercise fo his office, he pointed out the abuses to wliich im- 
prisonment for debt, which Rhode Island was the last State to 
abolish, had given rise, and was instrumental in having an act for 
its abolition enacted by one House; but it was not until 1870 that 
this relic of barbarism was wiped from the statute book. During 
the period he held office, the Maine Liquor Law excitement was at 
its height, and he was strenuous in his opposition to the measure 
on Constitutional grounds, a speech of his to the Senate of Rhode 
Island, on the subject, being preserved in print. 

Mr. Wheaton, the early friend and mentor of Governor Law- 
rence, having died in March, 1848, leaving his family in impov- 
erished circumstances, he undertook, at their request, a prepara- 
tion of an edition of the Elements of Interjiatienal Laiu, which was 
published in 1 85 5. This work was preceded by an appreciative 
notice of the life of Mr. Wheaton, and more than two-thirds of the 
matter consisted of the emendations of the editor, bringing it down 
to the period of its publication. This was wholly a labor of love 
on the part of the editor, and the entire proceeds of this and the 
subsequent edition of 1863, as well as of the French Coiininntaire. 
were voluntarily given to the family of the deceased publicist. In 
1858 appeared his treatise on Visitation and Searcli in 'Itnie of 
Peace, occasioned by the revival, in the Gulf of Me.xico, of the 
British pretensions to visit merchant vessels of other nations, under 
the pretext of suppressing the African slave trade. Tiiis same year. 
Governor Lawrence visited Europe again, after an ab.sence of some 
thirty years, remaining until i860, travelling on the Continent and 
making the acquaintance of all the prominent wiitcrs on the law 
of nations there and in England. At Rome he was presented to 
the I loly Father, at a special audience given to him antl Mr. William 
B. Reed, then just returned from his mission to China. Before his 
return to this country, he published in Paris a pamphlet in French, 
entitled L Industrie Francais et l' Esclavage des Nlgi-es aux Etats 
Unis, which attracted considerable attention and was translatetl 
and published in the London Morning Chronicle, from which it 
was reprinted, with the English title, French Conunerce and Manu- 
factures and Negro Slavery in the United States. It explained 
the connection which existed between the manufactures of 
Europe and the system of labor then prevalent in the Southern 
Slates. 



i3 

Upon becoming settled at home, he appHed himself to the pre- 
paration of a revised and enlarged edition of the Elements of Inter- 
national La-cV, which was published in 1863 as Lazvrcnce's 
]Vlicaton. The appearance of this publication induced Brockhaus, 
the well-known publisher of Leipsic, who had brought out the 
F"rench edition of Mr. Wheaton's two works, to request Governor 
Lawrence to prepare an original commentary in that language. 
The order of Wheaton's klcinents was followed, and the first volume 
of the Coninicntairc stir Ics Elements dc Droit International was 
issued in 1868; the second in 1S69, the third in 1873, and the 
fourth only recently appeared, leaving the work unfortunately 
unfinished, as it was planned to extend to at least six, and 
probably eight, volumes. The publication of Lazvrence's Whea- 
ton occurred, as it will be seen, when the people of this land 
were in the midst of the bitter throes of the fratricidal contest be- 
tween the North and the South, and the pronounced views of Gov- 
ernor Lawrence upon the questions of State rights and allied sub- 
jects, were unacceptable to the narrow-mindedness which could look 
at such inquiries only from one stand-point, unable to viewthem from 
the broad platform of statesmanship. Such being the case, Law- 
rence's Wheaton was called disloyal, and Mr. Richard Henry Dana, 
Jr., a gentleman ofiiigh literary attainments, apparently, especially 
qualified for the task by his position in Harvard University, as lec- 
turer on International Law, was engaged to edit a new or loyal 
edition of Wheaton's blements, which was issued, in 1866, by the 
same house as had published, three years before, Lawrence's Whea- 
ton. This led to a sharp litigation for infringement of copyright 
between Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Dana, in the Circuit Court of the 
United States for Massachusetts, which, I believe, although the bill 
was filed October 24, 1866, has not yet been finally settled. 

I do not propose to go into an investigation of this highly im- 
I)ortant case, the printed papers in which cover upwards of si.xteen 
hundred octavo pages ; but it is only proper to say that the judicial 
investigation resulted in an opinion by Judges Clifford and Lowell, 
delivered September 20, 1869, finding that all the defences raised 
to Governor Lawrence's claim were bad, and deciding that " the 
complainant [Lawrence], in the view of a court of equity, is the 
equitable owner of the notes, including the arrangement of the 
same, and the mode in which they are therein combined and con 



nected with the text, and ofthecopyrightstakenout by the proprietor 
of the book-s for the protection of the property ; " and decreeing " that 
many of the notes presented in the edition edited by the respondent 
[Dana,] do infringe the corresponding notes in the two editions edited 
and annotated by the complainant, and that the respondent borrowed 
very largely the arrangement of the antecedent edition, as well as 
the mode in which the notes in that edition are combined and con- 
nected with the text." Then, owing to the extensive and com- 
plex character of the matter infringed, the cause was referred to a 
Master to report the details to the Court. In tlie course of the 
opinion, which is very elaborate, and occupies forty-seven printed 
pages, the Court says : — " Evidence to show that the notes in the 
two annotated editions of ]Vhcatoiis Elements of International Law, 
as prepared by the complainant, involved great research and labor 
beyond what appears in those two works, is unnecessary, especially 
as the allegations in the brief of complainant to that effect are not di- 
rectly denied in the answer; and it is equally obvious and clear 
that the results of the rescarcli and labor tiiere exhibited could not 
well have been accomplished by any person other than one of 
great learning, reading and experience in such studies anti investi- 
gations. Such a comprehensive collection of authorities, ex[)lana- 
tions and well-considered suggestions, is nowhere, in the judgment 
of the Court, to be found in our language, unless it be in the text 
and notes of the author of the original work." This certainly is as 
high commendation as any author could hope to receive. 

This copyright controversy became of national importance on the 
occasion of President Grant's sending to the Senate, in March, 1876, 
the name of Mr. Dana, as Minister to England, to succeed General 
Schenck,as it caused his rejection by a very decisive vote. I could not 
entirely approve of Mr. Lawrence's course in bringing forward this 
private matter to defeat great public ends ; for certainly, after the 
way the country had been wwrepresented by General Schenck, a 
gentleman of Mr. Dana's social position and cultivation would have 
done much to redeem our credit. Especially did 1 deprecate the 
association of so notorious a person as " the Essex statesman "in pre- 
senting the case to the Senate. After the rejection. Governor Law- 
rence wrote to me from Washington, under date of April 19, 1S76: 
— " T am sorr\' that my course in reference to Dana does not meet 
your approbation. You can scarcely imagine the provocation ; 



I 



15 

for his hostility antedates long the piratical edition. I can't, how- 
ever, take to myself the result of the Senate's action ; and, as it was 
entirely on the record that the decision was made, I can hardly 
imagine that that eminent body decided wrongfully." Further on, 
referring to a biographical notice which he had desired me to pre- 
pare for M. Rolin Jacquemyns, Secretary-General of L Imtitut de 
Droit International, he writes : — " I hope that, unless my Dana affair 
has lost me your good opinion, you will take care of me after I am 
gone." It is in fulfilment of this request, often repeated, that the 
present memoir has been prepared. Before leaving this subject, it is 
a curious coincidence to note that the first important copyright case in 
this country was in 1 83 1 , by Mr. Wheaton against Richard Peters, Jr., 
of this city, for reprinting his reports of the Supreme Court deci- 
sions, and that the ne.xt should arise, also, out of one of Mr. 
Wheaton's works. 

Another cause in which Go\crnor Lawrence was personally inter- 
ested, has become of public note, and must be mentioned here on 
account of an important and erudite treatise it called forth from 
his pen. He filed a bill against one Staigg for the recision of a con- 
tract for the sale of a small portion of the Ochre Point property, 
owing to the mutual mistake of the contracting parties. This litigation 
began in September, 1863, and is also unfinished, owing to the re- 
markable and anomalous action of the Supreme Court of Rhode 
Island, in making a decree and then refusing to enforce it. This 
called forth a caveat from Governor Lawrence, which was filed in 
February, 1874, and entitled Tlic Administration of Equity juris- 
prudence. It contains one hundred and seventy-six printed pages, 
and gives a complete history of the relations of equity to common 
law in England and in the United States. 

Governor Lawrence made a fourth visit to Europe in the fall of 

1868, remaining until thespring of 1870. While abroad, heattended 
the Social Science Congress held at Bristol, England, in October, 

1869, when he had the gratification of renewing his former acquaint- 
ance with Sir John Bowring. The British Social Science Association 
had, three years before, named him as a member of the commission 
to prepare a code of international law. The winter of 1869-70 he 
passed in Paris, at work upon the third volume of the Commentaire, 
and immediately upon his return home he addressed himself to the 
preparation of an elaborate brochure on the Disabilities of American 



i6 

Women Married Abroad. Subsequently his attention was engaged 
by the meeting of the Joint High Commission at Washington, 
wliicli resulted in the Treaty of May 8, 1871. Within a fortnight 
of its adjournment, he published an exhaustive examination of the 
Treaty of Washington, in which its different articles were taken 
up and explained. Later, when the presentation of what were 
known as the Indirect Claims was pressed by our Government 
upon the arbitrators at Geneva, and which threatened for a time to 
imperil the successful issue of their deliberations, he came forward 
with an elaborate argument to show the impropriety of their pre- 
sentation. Immediately upon the selection of the Mixed Commis- 
sion on British and American Claims under the Xllth Article of 
the Treaty, for the consideration of all those other than the Alabama 
Claims, Governor Lawrence was solicited by many claimants to act as 
counsel, and in the most important cause that came before the Com- 
mission, the case of the Circassian, he succeeded in reversing a de- 
cision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and obtained an 
award for his clients of $225,264 in gold. His brief in this case 
was printed with the title Belligerent and Sovereign Rights as Re- 
gards A^eutrals during the War of Secession, 1873, and the fee he 
received for arguing the cause was $40,000 in gold. 

For several years, Mr. Lawrence passed his winters in Washing- 
ton, enjoying the society of the foreign diplomats gathered there, 
and during the season of 1872-73 gave, at Columbian University, a 
series of lectures upon his favorite theme. He wrote me, January 
8, 1873, " I delivered, on Monday evening, the first of my course 
of lectures, before the Law School of the college here. I was 
honored by the presence of the Chief Justice antl other Judge? of 
the .Supreme Court." Upon the formation at Ghent, in September, 
iSj;^, of L'/nstit/it de Droit International, he was .selected as one 
of the thirty-seven members to compose it. His minor contribu- 
tions to the law of nations will be found distributed through the 
Loudon Lazu Magazine, La Revue de Droit International, Trans- 
actions of the British Social Science Association, and the Albany 
Laiv Journal. His last article appeared in the North American 
Review for November, 1880, on The Monarchical Principle in our 
Constitution, which is a presentation of the subject, of remarkable 
vigor, coming fmm a man of four-score years. 



17 

Governor Lawrence held many positions of a quasi public charac- 
ter. He was in his early days a Counsellor of the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of New York, over which De Witt Clinton 
presided. He was Vice-President of the New York Historical 
Society, 1836-1S45 ; Trustee of the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, 1837-1855 ; and the last surviving founder of the Union Club, 
formed in 1836 by Philip Hone, Charles King, Ogden Hoffman, Mr. 
Lawrence, and a few others. He waselected a corresponding member 
of the Numismaticand Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Novem- 
ber 5, 1868, and chosen Honorary Vice-President for the State of 
Rhode Island, 1 869, — an honor he fully appreciated. He was much 
interested in our pursuits, and on two occasions was present at our 
meetings, and I have every reason to believe that, had he recovered 
from the illness which proved his last, he would have presented to 
our library his copy of Lord Kingsborough's superb work on 
Mexican Antiquities. In 1826, Yale College conferred upon him 
the honorary degree of A. M. ; in 1869 Brown University the de- 
gree of LL. D. ; and, in 1873, the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York, the first degree of D. C. L. ever granted in the 
United States. 

Last July, I was in Newport fora day, and saw Governor Lawrence 
for the last time, when I congratulated him upon his robust ap- 
pearance ; — it struck me that I had not seen him appearing so well 
for years. But the dread conqueror must even then have been at 
work. He left Ochre Point for his native city in November, and 
gradually failed until he died, as has been stated, on Saturday, 
March 26th, from a general breaking up of the system. His funeral 
took place at St. Mark's Church, and the body was taken to the 
family ground, on Long Island, for interment. 

Governor Lawrence will always be remembered for his frank and 
cordial manners, his princely hospitality, and that courtly bearing 
which so pre-eminently distinguished him. His reputation abroad 
as a writer on public law is unquestionably higher than any other 
American, only excepting Mr. Wheaton, and he is looked upon as 
the peer of any of his European contemporaries. In a country 
where diplomacy is a profession, as it should be under all enlight- 
ened Governments, Mr. Lawrence would ever have been employed 
in the public service. As a writer, his style was rather diffuse, and 
some of his later essays seem to sufier from an overcrowding of 



t8 

ideas, as if his thoughts out-ran his pen, as they most probably did. 
He was always a voracious reader, and, when first journeying 
abroad, carried with him a travelling library of books for study. 
He then began, also, the collection of that library which to-day 
stands unequalled, in this country, for works in ICnglish, French, 
Italian, Spanish and German, bearing upon the subjects he so loved 
to study. He leaves five children to survive him, Mrs. Lawrence 
having died in 1858, shortly previous to his third visit to Europe. 
Icannotbringthismemorialofhis life and labors toa more fitting end 
than by transcribing the closing item of his will, — a warning valuable 
enough to be universally employed by all testators, — " Aware of 
the ruinous consequences of litigation to all concerned in the case 
of wills, I do hereby dec' ire it to be my will that, in case any child 
or descendant of a child, who may claim any share in my estate, 
shall oppose the probate of this, my last will and testament, or 
take any legal proceedings to impeach the validity of any of its 
provisions, the said child or other descendant shall be debarred 
from all participation in my property, real and personal, and the 
share of such child or descendant shall descend to and be possessed 
by the person or persons who would have been entitled thereto 
had .said child or descendant of child died in my lifetime." 



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JBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



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HollinKer Corn. 



